We all appreciate what you have done to keep Terry’s Serendipity Café
running smoothly in its 24th year.

The Weather was sunny at last, the music was
fine, (I liked Beach Bod), The
staff band was SPECTACULAR, and I don’t know how the lemon sugar cookies
tasted.

5/18/2019 Gay May Day
with GSA, good bands, lots of money raised for the Ali
Forney Center. Nicely done, staff.

4/12/2019 Rapndipity at Lutherans. Things went quite well, with 100
paid attendees, a record for the year. The music was loud, and there were some
issues with content, but we worked a lot of it out at the critique
meeting.

3/22/2019 Serendipity at
the Lutherans. Interesting performers, but alas, a small
audience. But we managed to collect $60 for a Honduran family relocated
to the USA. A lot of new staff members got a chance at tasks they had never
before attempted. Thisis good
experience for future events.

2/9/2019 Interesting new
performers and the Free Store made this a creditable start to the new Year. Attendance was over sixty again, but I had hoped
we could grow some more. Mike Berlin was back with his huge Grand Caravan,
making the transportation easy once again. There were a few things we should
talk about at the critique meeting, but all good!

12/28/18
Good Event at the Lutherans, attendance up again to over 60, fine music, alumni
presence, solid staff participation, without Mike
Berlin or Greg Pason. Special thanks to Ben and Madeline, who helped out
greatly, even though Lola was not there!

11/23/18 Friday after Thanksgiving Serendipity Cafe at the
Lutherans. Music was good, attendance was up. New staffers working on
tasks! Good to see Alumni Staff and performers. Plenty of
help right up to the end. That's what I call "Terry's Serendipity
Cafe" !

10/19/18
Scarendipity at the Lutheran Church. Art, music and pumpkins spelling out
"Scarendipity" combined to make this an enjoyable Halloween party. A
little light on the snacks, perhaps but the artists reported some sales, and
the Make the Road collection was substantial.

9/28/18
Another not rained out amphitheater show. This time
the ants did not get the pizza, since we had tables to put them on. The chairs
were quite popular, too. Good music with Sammy Trombone, Emil Noll &
friends, Uncleater, and others also Alumnus Aidan
Feliciano at open mic and a spirited version of "Big Time Woman".
Benefit for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing committe
for which we collected $53. The turnout was small but dedicated and respectful.

8/24/18
This amphitheater show was not rained out! But the
lawn mowing left a bit to be desired. Things were open for us this time, and we
ran our "extended open mic" outdoors in weather that was acceptable.
Youngest performer in a long time, a 12 year old singer songwriter, would you
believe.

7/27/18
A rain-in rather than a rain out! Even though the building was locked when we got
there, Gabbi and I searched the building (clockwise) for a way in, which we
found around on Midland Ave. We walked through the building and got the
Auditorium doors open from the inside.So we moved all our gear onto the auditorium stage, got some fans and
lights working, set up the PA and had a really good time. The bands seemed to
get into the spirit of Serendipity, especially Gabi the Artist, and the music
was solid.

7/4/18
Independence Day Parade with Elvis! Thanks Lucas, Avery and the irregulars.

6/16/18
Festival Underground 2018. Claire and Rory won our Annual Scholarship award.
The Scholarship Award Committee were impressed with
their contributions to Serendipity Cafe. The generator ran perfectly, thanks,
PRCA! But next year we want to go back to the old picnic ground. This year's
Staff Band performance of "Big Time Woman" was awe inspiring to say
the least. A wonderful day all around.

5/26/18, GSA at Watchung. Gay May Day postponed a week due
to rain, but good performances and a good amount of money raised
for the Ali Forney Center.

4/13/18 Rap'n'Dipity at the Lutherans.Very
small turnout, 30. Great performance by Your Mystery Guest, though. Too
bad you missed it.

3/3/18
B’nai Keshet was our host and we had nearly double the attendance of January.
Our new staff task assignment sheet was in effect along with new guidelines for
staff behavior, all of which was noticeably working. We have a May 19 date for
our fund raiser with the GSA, Gay May Day in Watchung Plaza. And we will have
Festival Underground and Make Music Day in June.

1/26/18
We were at the First Lutheran Church. we're going to have to promote these events better, they are
more fun with a larger audience. The entertainment was good, but, aside from Liv, not that exciting. We're currently working on getting
locations for the next shows, there are scheduling problems.

12/28/2017
Terry’s Serendipity Café at B’nai Keshet: This event was well received, good
music, good open mic, Mental Hazard was a big hit I
think. Attendance was quite low and we paid too much rent, aside from that, it
was ok. We needed more staff participation in group setup especially during
open mic. Always good to see Your Mystery Guest.

11/24/2017
Alumni Serendipity at the Lutherans. Among the alumni present were Mackensie, Chelsea, and Aidan Feliciano, strangely Greg and
I found an Open Mic paper plate with Aidan F. and Anna Berlin (Michael’s
daughter) on the list.Probably from
2009 or thereabouts. Things went quite smoothly, timely setups, good
music. The coffee I made was not good, I’ll have to
work on that.

10/13/2017 Scarendipity 2017 at the Lutherans. Aidan and I
had a great time with the dry ice, and there were quite a few costumes. We were
able to transport all our gear including the Halloween stuff without my old
1999 Toyota minivan, which we have replaced with a Honda CR-V. Which held the lights and the drum kit, so not bad all together.
Music was good, respect needs a little work, missing
our missing seniors.

9/29/2017 The Amphitheater again.Fine but
cool weather, low bug count. Good solid bunch of music, with Anna as
Entertainment head. Nice opening shtick with Aiden and Jakey,
good open mic, several 12 string guitars audible. Money raised
for Mexico City relief.

8/25/2017 Terry’s Serendipity at the MHS Amphitheater. If it
wasn’t for Chelsea, we wouldn’t have had Serendipity Café Friday night. She
wins the brass figligee with bronze oak-leaf palm for
being the only staff member at load-up. Fortunately a goodly collection of
staffers was present for the rest of the show, gradually. Good music, including
Birdwing, good to see Sam Skinner drop in and do an
open mic song, and it was fun reciting “Jabberwocky” for the assemblage. Thanks
to Mike and Greg for being there, handling the situation, watching the lights
go on and off, etc. And Chelsea produced a new Zine
issue as well.

7/28/17
Serendipity at the MHS Amphitheater. It worked, in spite of the forecast and
the food poisoning. Music was good, staff was good, cookies
were good. Any opinions about Veggie Straws or Capri Sun?

7/17/17
Festival Underground 2017. Rainy days are ok if you're really underground. We
weren't. But Greg brought his 2 tents (we were too tense) and we gave Ben
Wilson the Scholarship Award for outstanding Staff Service, and Lily and Maiya's bands played. And Shadowmakers
chickened out. Thanks to PRCA for the cute and quiet generator.

7/4/17
Independence Day Parade! With Ben as Spiderman and Lucas as Olaf, and of
course, Elvis as Elvis, we got to display our newly-minted and designed (Thanks,
Greg) banner. Good day, lotta dancing.

6/21/17
Make Music Day Montclair. (This went on all day). Lotta
work, lotta fun! I got to play with New Tricks, and
in the Ukulele Parade! Watchung Mountain riders at Diamond were quite Greatful Dead-ish. Hoopers, even.

6/17/17
Festival Underground at Edgemont Park. Well, it was partly rained out, but Greg
saved the day by carrying 2 tents over to the park on his bike! Maiya's band was greatvery jazzy,
with trumpet, Jake sitting in on guitar, and fine vocalists. Then Lily V and
the LV band were good and original. Open Mic was fun and congratualtions
to Ben Wilson on winning the 2017 Terry's Serendipity Cafe Staff Scholarship
Award!!

5/26/17 St. Luke's Church. Starting
with Soular, who presented some fine vocals, we had
great music and a smallish crowd. But the vibe was great and we did raise some
money in the

benefit jar. There's more to say,
but something is wrong with the hosting.

4/28/2017
Terry’s Serendipity Café at the Lutherans’. Good music, good audience and a large
staff went a long way towards making this an excellent event. We felt good
about working, learning setup and pack up tasks etc. And we collected over a
hundred bucks for Meena. Hung out on Ed’s deck afterwards.
Critique was quite favorable. Thanks!

3/25/17 Rap'n'Dipity at B'nai Keshet. It went quite
smoothly, high attendance, but not as much respect, though. The open mic
[hottest rhyme contest] worked well. Some things need to be worked on for rap
setup. And we fried channel one of the main (QSC) amp. But we got along on one
channel, and it has been replaced with a new one. The old one was bought used
about 5 years ago.

2/24/17
With a record $280 raised for Planned Parenthood, this
was a fine event. We had a good long open mic, fine bands, a
good size staff. And we ate up all the pizza! Lots of people helped with setup
& operations, so I thing we made progress in the learning dept. We ought to
start thinking about how to get along without our seniors. Speaking of which
Margot D. stopped in for a visit!

1/27/17
Our first Terry's Serendipity Cafe at St. Luke's was a
success. Although we did not figure out how to deal with the many entrances,
the room sounded good, the attendance was acceptable, and the music was good.
We had a problem with one band using up too much setup time, but we'll work on
that for next time. At the subsequent critiques, the location was given a very
positive approval. And we raised $134 for the Sylvia Rivera Project.

12/29/16
And Decembers's show was a fitting finish to the
year. Over 100 in attendance, great bands, fun open mic, no broken pots, in
short, everything you could ask for in an event of Terry's Serendipity Cafe. A
Happy New Year to the audences and staff, and a
special thanks to Mike Berlin for retrieving the chalkboard and closing the
front door. We might have gotten some points off for that. I glued the rubber
back on the Pearl kickdrum pedal, and put all the
parts of the hi-hat clutch back together. And the screw that fell off the
cymbal stand. We need some focus on taking down the drum kit, I think. I'll
look at the mic stands tomorrow.

12/2/2016
The November Terry's Serendipity Cafe was held in December at the Lutherans.
Huge amounts of donations were made to help the people at Standing Rock resist
the pipeline, over $180 in cash, plus food, clothing blankets, etc. And the
music was good. Audience participation and respect were in top form. There are
a few tech details we need to work out with the bluetooth
receiver, and we did break some coffee pots, but it was my fault for not
checking carefully enough. Attendance was just over 100.

10/22/2016
Scarendipity was held at the Lutheran Church on Park St, and was quite well
attended. I think we had around 150 audience members, over 30 of whom got the costume discount (we’re big on cosplay). We raised some money for the Fair Workers
organization, and we had interesting music, and a fun jam (C-blues) at open
mic, with Matt, Nathan, Ed, and sorry but I don’t have the bass & drum
names, they were right on, though. Good show, folks

9/30/2016
We intended to be in the Amphitheater, but rainy
weather moved us indoors onto the auditorium stage, where music and trivia
filled a somewhat small but successful evening. We had Cynthia from SOFIA who lead us in taking the pledge again, and good music as usual.

8/26/2016
Another bit of rain, and another enjoyable
Amphitheater gig. That one guitar guy was too loud. but
I liked the Engineers (Small? Little?) And we did Open
Mic first, just to try it, and it didn't give the performers that much of an
audience. My guess is we won't do that again. And we needed respect teaching
and snack bar plugging. Next time.

7/29/2016 A bit of rain, but not enough to suppress the excellent
turnout for Serendipity Café at the Amphitheater. We’re guessing there were
over 80 in the audience, and a good size staff turnout as well. Music was great
and varied. I love doing the event at the Amphitheater. They need to get that
electric socket fixed by the auditorium door, though. Good to see Nelson again,
the MHS custodian.

7/4/2016
The Independence day parade, with Elmo, Cat in the Hat, and Elvis was a fine
sunny day. Lucas got a bit light headed in that cat costume, but every kid in
town wanted a hug and a selfie. We met Sarah Copeland
along the route, who pointed out that we should have Terry's name on our
banner. And we will, right?

6/18/2016
Festival Underground 2016 was quite enjoyable. The weather was fine, we had two
fine recipients of the Staff Scholarship Award, and we raised $131 for the
Pulse victims in Orlando. We'll bring that up to $200 and send it this week.

5/26/2016
A good sized crowd and some fine music helped us to
raise over $100 for Make Music Day, which we will match. Grace’s bake sale was
a success, and we had some fun as well. Many thanks to the late shift of the
staff, who hung out on my deck watching the city twinkle after the unloading
was done.

5/21/2016
The Gay May Day event raised a record amount of money for the Ali Forney LGBTQ+
Homeless Shelter in NYC, for the second year in a row. We were proud of that.
And Tula Vera played extremely well. We had music from noon until after 4 PM
and no complaints! Doing this event at Watchung Plaza is much better than the
Church St. sidewalk.

4/29/2016 The April Serendipity at last. Back at the
Lutherans’ we had another light turnout, but fund raising for the Animal
Shelter went well, and we presented them with a check for $150. Citrus, a band
from South Orange, had a horn section. A couple of Alumni Showed up. The veggie pizza was not well
received.

4/1/2016Serendipity Cafe
at First Lutheran Church. The Dollys had a light-up
bass drum with their name, Tula Vera played, and Lucy started things off.It was a very smooth, not too big event, and
we had presenters from SOFIA that were invited by the NOW club at MHS. We
raised $73 for SOFIA which we will match and present them with a check for
$146. Once again there was a complaint about aux inputs being noisy, even with
the new cable. We agreed to bring stuff to a meeting and work on the problem.

2/26/2016
"Rapndipity" at First Lutheran Church.
Attendance was up over 100 again, and we collected over $70 for Toni's Kitchen.
Thanks to Margot for working the crowd. The Rap Battle which replaced open mic
created the most controversy, but the audience seemed to really enjoy it. It
prompted a lot of discussion at our Critique meeting this week (3/2/16). Couple
of cable problems I'll Look into.

1/29/2016
Serendipity Cafe at First Lutheran Church. This was a small event also. I left
the cookies in my garage, was the big mistake. So I ate them. But I put in the
money for the whole box. Remind me to compute the prices for cookies using the fibonacci series, so we don't have to guess.

12/19/2015
Our December event was in December before we ran out of time.This was a small but respectfully presented
Serendipity Cafe. Except for melting the tupperware a
little, and a few mental lapses, such as leaving the blackboard behind, (retireived later), it went well.

12/5/2015
Our November event was in December, to keep from smashing into Thanksgiving
plans.An error in scheduling caused a
last minute (OK last 72 hour) change in venue, but it worked out well. We had
over 100 paid audience members (101), some new bands, artists, new audience
volunteer helpers, new bands and some fun as well. Thanks to all those who hung
on until the last lap. And we got praised for our cleanup and chair placement.
Thanks, everyone!

10/30/2015
Scarendipity at the Lutherans. With a dozen pumpkins and skeleton out of the
closet, we had a scary large number of people, headless and headed. Music was
great, good progress teaching the newbies how to
RESPECT and a fair amount of fun & open mic to boot. So there you go.

9/25/2015
We did not use the Park House due to overcrowding of
furniture, and other considerations, so we were back at the Amphitheater.
Partially makes up for no Amphitheater last year. It was a good Serendipity
Café, and well attended for an Amphi show. Got an email from PRCA, though, that the school had called that
someone got into a classroom during our event. Apparently a door was
left unlocked, anyhow no damage was done, so I don’t
think we’re in trouble. But we should discuss this.

8/21/2015
Another lovely evening at the amphitheater. We raised
about $80 for the victims of the fire on Claremont Ave, and the Montclair
Student Café project will match that. So a check will be written as soon as
Greg gets us contact information. The music was fine, quite hip-hoppish, and we liked how easy the loading and unloading at
Ed’s new house turned out to be.

7/24/2015
Fine warm weather contributed to the excellent turnout for Serendipity Café at
the Amphitheater last Friday. We’re guessing there were over 50 in the
audience, and a good size staff turnout as well. Music was great, included Tula
Vera and Your Mystery Guest. We also put Open Mic at the end, which we will
discuss at length at the next meeting. And thanks to the helpers who moved gear
to 325 Grove St. for the first time, and wanted to move in.

6/20/2015
A persistent drizzle attempted to stop us from doing
the Festival but we were even more persistent. Great work by
all the staff, bands, founders, audience members. Too wet for sidewalk
chalk and bubble blowing, but we sang RESPECT, gave out our staff award
[Congratulations, Alana!], and got our blackboard erased. And the following day
was Make Music Day in which the staff were ever
present and hard working. They all deserve many thanks. Especially Greg, with
lost phones, bent tents, bicycles and minivans.

5/30/2015
– With six bands plus open mic, this event was quite lengthy. However the crew
at the end was sufficiently numerous that we made light work of it, even with
Michael’s bad back. We were sad but proud to host the final performance of “No
Noise”, but we hope there may be others. Attendance was good but not
staggering, so, we did not stagger and we did not fight. Like the Midnight
Special.

4/17/2015
- This was the Big Rapendipity, with all rap music at
the Lutheran Church on Park St.. We SOLD OUT before 9
pm. We felt that this was much more of a party audience than we had planned
for, but I think we now know a lot more about setting up and running this kind
of event. Mike was great (with several staff helpers) in getting the audience
duly stamped and entered. The kids we turned away seemed to understand that the
event was sold out and responded to requests not to hang out in the parking
lot.

3/27/2015
Great attendance, great new music, a huge Open Mic, and serveral
comments on the quality (good) of our sound expertise made this a successful
Serendipity Event.

2/27/2015
“The Carendipity” fund raiser for SOFIA in
cooperation with the NOW club was a great success, we all took pledges, donated
money, wore wristbands and helped out a good cause.

1/31/2015
Another record attendance, great bands, fun open mic,
and a whole bazaar of artists, photographers, Zine
producers joined the usual band merch sellers. This
caused some discussion at the critique meeting about the extra conversations
generated by the artists as a second focus of attention, away from the
musicians. However we did manage to put on the whole show, deal with most of
the lost-and-found items, and reinforce the RESPECT culture.

12/26/2014
Last Serendipity Café of the year, at the Lutherans. A surprisingly large
attendance (115) and staff-aided-by-alumni made this a fun Serendipity. “Big
Time Woman” (open mic) with Beryl on drums and Matt Arons(sp) on lead guitar. We
did extra verses. Finished on time (ish)
with plenty of staff for the last mile. Thanks!

11/22/2014
“Rap’n’dipity was a complete success. 136 paid
audience and we let people in free during the last band. Forgot 2 of the
stands, but that was quickly remedied. Audience was respectful, staff filled in
for Mike (who took his wife to dinner and then came back to help us clean up) . Have to warn the staffers who sched
pickup too early, though. Great to have Greg P. with us.
Always makes the show go better to have his experience and strength on the
team.

11/2/2014
Scarendipity was held on 11/1, Saturday Night, at the Lutherans. The new staff
is learning quickly how to set up, and Ben was entertainment head for the first
time. Things went well, we made some money. I really liked Vinnie’s new version
of Los Huevos, and Leadbeater
hit the loudness record at 129.9 dB. Good open mic, including a poetry reading.
Alexis was back helping out a lot with driving and screaming. Sunflower was
musical, electric ukulele style, and Matt was there again at open mic with a leadbelly song.

9/26/2014
Edegmont Park Shelter House. Good turnout,
and we heard some great music. The new staff was aided by Gillian and Alexis
who managed to make it back home for yet another Serendipity Café. I forgot
quite a few things this time, making it worthwhile to return for them. The kids
from Stephen St were great, even without Ilah S. We
hope they can join us again.

8/29/14
We had some very good music Friday night, a surprising
29 member audience, and decent snack bar sales. Peter Guiffra attended and said
a few words, and Greg Pason was there helping and being a good friend. O Face,
Use Big Words, Daisy Chainz and No Noise were all
great, and we raised over $40 for gas money for O Face to get back to Bard,
which I thinkwas
quite good. I can tell we will soon be missing our seniors, Gillian, Alexis,
Jason, Chris, Bonnie, Beryl, and Hannah.

7/25/14
Serendipity at the Lutheran Church, extremely well attended for a July
Serendipity, with interesting music. There was a vibraphone and a melodica, which are unusual, and an electric ukulele,
(right, Marzipan?). The weather cooperated and the staff enjoyed Pinegrove,
Addie Pray, Austin Tannenbaum, Sunflower, and others,
I’ll fix this later.

7/4/14
The parade took place in spite of Hurricane Arthur,
which sorta rained a bit on the after-parade party.
The Montclair Arts Council rented the Serendipity PA for the Edgemont picnic,
which was shorter than it would have been with rain getting worse towards the
end. But it cleared up for the fireworks and so it turned out to be a great 4th.
Gillian as Wonder Woman, Hanna, Chris as Spiderman and Beryl (as Little Red
Riding Hood} wore costumes while Jason, Bonnie, and Max Moore marched with the
banner. Alexis drove her Miata with the top down, and a wig and Hannah on the
back as Ariel the Mermaid. Peter was Grand Marshal and had to lead the parade
in a suit and tie, and then change to Elvis and get to the tail. What
excitement. Ed ran sound at Edgemont park for the
picnic and left the parade early to set up the system. As it turned out, I
could have done a lot more parade, since they didn’t want the music to start
until the parade ended. Oh well. Next time.

6/21/14
We keep the whole town supplied with music, by
cooperating with the famous Make Music Day celebrations all around the world.
Festival Underground was super. Gillian Morello won
the scholarship award, and the staff gave Ed a BIG gift card to Fleet Feet and
wrote the nicest things in a card. Julia and Anna took Mike’s place and drove
the truck & carried stuff. The weather was perfect.

5/3/2014
So I screwed up the date for the 4/26 show which the
Church thought was 4/25, and they were right. So we changed it to 5/2, last
Friday. So even though the intended large group of cover bands didn’t make it,
bands from the Meatlocker and a House show that were
suddenly cancelled showed up at Serendipity so we had very interesting music,
too band the audience was so small, ‘cause it was one of the best, musically.
Staff was great, too. Good to see founder Ranira
Morris who made a substantial donation, and Greg Pason was there so we could
jabber about Make Music Day..

3/21/2014
Been a while since we did those stairs, but we had a
large crew and it went quickly. Music was good, I
liked the electronic stuff that was not a gameboy.
Not too big a crowd, 50 people, and we broke a mic stand boom thing, and left
the coffee pots behind. All will be corrected before the next event though, you
can be sure of that.

2/22/2014
Although no couples took advantage of the tremendous
$1.00 discount, we had a good time at Fletcher Hall, of the UUC on Church St.
We blew no breakers, sound & lights ran smoothly and the coffee was good,
considering. The music was good, Small Victories and Ana Bonesteels
band were new to me, and they sounded great. I wish we could have heard her
voice more clearly. And late word is in that the foot switch for the Blue
Voodoo amp has been found. Well!

1/29/2014
Last Friday’s extra cool (< 10F) Serendipity Café at the Lutherans had good
music. I should get the names of the band from Bard, I think, that was
instrumental in making the sound good. The floor was hard to clean though. And
it appears as though we made a profit of over $7! I’ll put up more after the
critique.

12/21/2013
It was a smooth Serendipity on B’nai Keshet. As far as
I can tell we remembered everything (I thought I had forgotten my clipboard,
but it was in the car). 74 people paid to attend, The
bands were good. We hosted Sunflower’s first Serendipity gig, which might have
been their first gig ever, and the open mic was fun with Peter Guiffra and I
doing “Blue Suede Shoes” and Alexis coming up for (what else) Big Time Woman.
Sammy Mellman was there, Thatcher Snyder, and some
other Alumni, not so rare.

11/23/2013
We haven’t been to First United Methodist in a while,
but we had a good time there. Attendance was in the 70’s, it didn’t rain much,
and we had a large staff at the end so things went quickly putting stuff away.
We did blow a couple of light bulbs, but Ed replaced them and we’re set to go.
Alexis found us a good set of bands. Sophie, LeadBeater,
The Sun Hurts, The Space Monkeys, Manon, all top
notch acts. And we got in some open mic with Gifts!

10/25/13
Although the Church people were late in opening up we
got the project off the ground and going by 7:07, not too bad. The event had
100 audience members, 35 with costumes, there was good
music, and decorations. The pumpkins out front were a nice touch. We forgot the
arrow committee, however, and some newbies didn’t
know where to go. Cleanup was fast and clean. What more do you want?

9/28/13
According to our critique and review of the 9/21 Serendipity at the Park House,
it was smooth and entertaining. I would have preferred the electric power to be
a little more usable and the garbage situation somewhat less smelly, but the
music was good, we raised money for the Save Darfur Club, and we got to make a
few speeches to the audience. “Big Time Woman” is always a high point in any
program, and the cleanup was fast and efficient, in spite of the rain. Thanks
to Ken and Mike, and the expert Serendipity Staff

8/31/13
The 8/23/31 Amphitheater show was a good summer event.
Lottahiphop, or possibly Rap.Mannon, open mic Michael dancing,
hardly any mosquitos.Ended
by jamming with Alexis & some other staff members.Once again, hardly any mosquitoes, and no raccoons this time.

8/1/2013
The Independence Day Parade was Elvis’ 20th and we went all out. We
had 5 costumed paraders, (There are pix on facebook). It went really well, I think we slowed up the
parade by an hour. Then on 7/26 we did an Amphitheater show, and the weather
was perfect, the hip-hop was unusually good, the audience (Due mainly to Lyrical’s manager Jared) was huge and the raccoons were
cuter than a dog. There was some good harmony by Marissa and Chris, Adult Mom
was there, and some others that I’m too old to remember. Next month we will
have another, I hope just as big.

6/22/2013
Festival Underground was highlighted by Jon Bell & his son’s band GNGR, and
my Sons’ band On the Water. They were all so good, as was Mannon.
The audience was small, as usual, and our Senior Staff Award winner, Ben Opatut decided to go, along with most of the staff, to Punk
Island, but we had a very enjoyable day anyhow, talking with Jon, jammin’ with the bands, etc. Evan was there, from
Pinegrove. The policeman who came to tell us there had been a “noise” complaint
was one of the best I’ve interacted with in years! What a great guy. He got
what he wanted, and we got to continue, and no one was angry!

5/31/2013
Good Serendipity Café at the Lutherans. Had over 65 people pay to attend, good
bands, Werebears and Gifts made their Kickstarter goal and played. Hot weather, but well done.
Drum kit needs work, tom support came loose again. Critique tonight (6/5/13)

5/18/2013
Shut down by the police during Gay May Day. We need to
work on how to avoid this. Hard copy of permit is a necessity.

4/26/2013
Funds were raised for Gifts and Werebears during a
good, well reviewed Serendipity Café at First United Methodist Church. The
basement was good, we had over 70 in attendance and matched $20 of donations to
the kickstarter mentioned above, and then added $60
more at the following meeting. We’re ready for the Gay May Day event, 6 hours
long!

3/23/2013
Serendipity Café at First Lutheran Church. Decent crowd, good
music, smooth operations. Nice open mic. Austin should get a bigger
audience, don’t you think?

2/16/2013
Serendipity at B’na Keshet. Not too big a crowd, but
interesting music. Sammy again, and the Holographic
Jellyfish. Hannah is working on the Tumblr. Page for Serendipity.

1/18/13
Big crowd at St. James for the Save Darfur, or Anti
Genocide Serendipity and Bake Sale. Good stuff, but too much setup with those
Bears. And the stairs got Alex.

We
did not have a December event. First Night was cancelled, and we almost did a
show, but the Meatlocker beat us to the punch, got
all the good bands. YayMeatlocker!

11/24/12
A huge crowd, augmented by a great alumni showing made
this Serendipity a record setter, with over 130 in the audience and great music
beginning to end. Makes me thing Serendipity is going to last for a while.

10/31/12
Halloween cancelled? Not Scarendipity. Went well, good music, organized staff. Lotta costumes, The usual
scheduling improvisations, dry ice. Then Hurricane Sandy couple days later left
us without much power, heat, etc. But we managed our critique meeting, ‘cause
there was power at the Park House.

9/24/2012
On Sept 22, we held the Alumni Serendipity which was warm and humid, but we
hosted over a dozen alumni, Byron in a top hat and ran over only a little.
Pinegrove and Werebears were great, Gifts were
wonderful, the Space Monkeys lead off, and we promised “Based on the Novel..” something, because there wasn’t time to fit them in open
mic. I had to give the old “respect” speech, since the audience was not paying
attention to Ben Rosefeld and his acoustic guitar
during open mic..

9/4/12 The 8/31 event was very good
reprise of the 7/27 Amphitheater concert, except no fishing. We somehow managed
to get along almost entirely without Ken P., with Trucker Mike doing all the
heavy trucking. Couple of leftover items probably belong
to Toasted Plastic, of Ridgewood, who think Serendipity is something every town
should have, but not many towns do.

8/2/12 Did the critique of the 7/27
Amphitheater show which was by all accounts a success. Charlie doesn’t like
outdoor shows, though, so we’re kicking him out of the club. Or
maybe letting him graduate.Something. Anyhow
the parade was great, thanks to our costume wearers, Gillian, Emily, Alexis,
Price, Max, and of course the candy flingers, banner bearers, etc.

5/17/12 After an exchange of emails
and a bit of a cooling off period, we get to announce that we are not involved
in this year’s Relay for Life. Maybe someday we will know why, but we’ve decide
to look ahead and maybe rename the July event “Jonahdipity”.

4/28/12 First Lutheran Church. The turnout for the final
unload was great, I think we set a world speed record.
Entertainment was good & smoothly presented. Attendance was still on the
small side, so we can still work on that. Wound up with a red electric guitar
in the lost & found. We think it belongs to Jen.

4/7/12 at First United Methodist Church. For a lot of
staffers, this was the first time at FUMC and the stairs were a surprise. But
things went well until everyone went home before the finalcleanup. The music was good, though, and
even though Toasted Plastic from Ridgewood only had a small audience, they were
full of praise for the Montclair audience’s respect and attention.

We have to work on publicity and support.

2/25/12 at B’nai Keshet: Much calmer than last month, mostly
due to the audience being half the size. Space Monkeys again. Some thought it
was the same show. But we sold some snacks, had

A good deal
of open mic, and, about a week afterwards, found the coffee mill. OK!

1/28/12 Our first time at Central
Presbyterian Church. Good size audience, lots of 8th graders due to
the Space Monkeys band, plenty of things for the critique. A
great way to start the year.

12/31/11 The audience was
impressive, by being over 160 people, of whom 94 paid $3.00 to come in. The
performers were grand, the sets a bit short, mostly, but the open mic was
definitely best of the year.

Thanks to the staff, the audience, the performers and the
advisors for a great year!

12/7/11 The Tree lighting on Friday, followed by the Café at
Bnai Keshet went exactly as planned, including more
than double the previous attendance. The music was good, The Skin Cells were
well organized, so were the Toasted Plastic and all
the locals. Nice work, everyone!

11/11/11 After doing sound for the
Veteran’s Day ceremonies in Edgemont Memorial Park, we trucked over to St.
James’ church and had a full Serendipity Café with a not full audience. Seems
to me we need to work on getting the audience numbers up. Good music, though, and
thanks to St. James for letting us use their Parish Hall on short notice after
our Scarendipity Cancellation.

9/24/11 Another Warm Serendipity, this
time in the Park House in Edgemont Park. The consensus seems to be that
it was good, there was a good sized audience, the coffee was great, and the
bands mostly got to play their whole sets. Josh Heaps was the entertainment
head, and we were slightly overbooked. The Alumi
theme was carried on by the Porchisas with founding
members Alan and Adam. And then Pinegrove with Alumni Evan
Hall, Zach Levine, Nick Levine. Aden Feliciano was there, as well as
Catherine Weller-Demming, a founder and current
Deputy Mayor. Alma Schneider of the Parents Who Rock presented us with a check
for $1363.00 which the PWR raised at their annual backyard party, which we did
the sound for, with Emily, Max, and a couple of other Staff members helped out
at. There’s pix on Facebookm see link above.

7/22/11 The Warm Serendipity: at least a hundred in the
shade. But we had Los Huevos, Sumi,
Stolen Jars, a standup comic, Anna and Carmen, I even got to sit in with Vinnie
& Los Huevos. We had S’mores,
with a camp stove, lotsa water, and visits by alumi Ethan Cantor, Oliver Rew,
Ross Hamilton. And Even Peter Guiffra was there. Many thanks
to Ken and Mike for all the help.

6/18/11 Festival Underground 2011 was an awards fest, with
Anna Berlin and Katherine Wolfgang receiving the annual Staff Scholarship
Award, presented by Carlos Lejnieks, who, by
coincidence, spoke at the MHS graduation ceremony this year. Carlos is a
founding staff member, and gave us some history, as well. Ken Pasture received
a special award for trucking, and dedication and Farrah
Stephenson from the American Cancer Society, presented Serendipity with a
plaque thanking us for our participation in Relay For
Life for the last 2 years. The music was tops, although I wish we had Stolen
Jars.The chalk art was immense, and
widespread.

5/21 /11 The Relay for Life on was punctuated by a
rainstorm, but the drying out worked and we got the system back on line &
no damage but mud. There was all night DJ work by Max and Emily, under a point
system of great complexity. A grand appearance by Alma and the New No
Rehearsals, plenty of darkness, a 2 AM ukulele jam with guitar, good performances
by Passing Notes, Stolen Jars, and others, but my notes are all blurry, I’ll
probably not be able to read the list until Josh makes a copy for the
entertainment notebook. In spite of all that, it appears that the ASC collected
over $90,000.00! And it was much better after I went home and put on dry socks.

4/29/11 show was loud and echo-ey.
Good performances all around especially the famous Pokey-Men, plenty of
audience members. Staff was non-existent except for Emily and Anna at load-up
time, though, and we are currently searching for our missing snare drum stand.

4/14/11 We taped an episode of
“Arts Close Up” with Meg Beatty Patrick on Channel 34 for broadcast in early May.
Anna, Julia, Josh, Harris, Emily, Thatcher, Charlie and Ed were there. We did
some interview-like stuff, some Josh/Harris guitar,
some Anna B tunes, and Thatcher & Charlie improvised a Serendipity
“commercial”.It will be on the
schedule, and in the On Demand menu, I hear. Thanks to Sharon Collucci, and Michael Reitman,
the blues photographer.Use the
following link, and select category “Arts Up Close”Montclair TV34

3/28/11 We collected some money for
aid to Japan,
tried out one of the bands that found us through the Star Ledger article, and
tried to be good for our newest hosts, the Bnai
Keshet Synagogue. It was pretty good, except for having to cancel Open Mic for
lack of time. I will speak to the people at BK and see how they feel about us
running over. Never had a guitar in the lost & found before, not to mention
power supplies, cables, etc.

2/27/2011 Friday’s “Carendipity”
went very well. Extra help at the start meant a quick Load-In, So we got right to the music, which was quite tuneful, in
spite of the complete lack of live drums. The “eat your heart out” jell-o
contest was quick, and not too messy. It’s good on the videos uploaded to tumblr.So, to sum
up, no one threw up over this one. Notes: Serendipity Café in the Star Ledger
at (2/10/11).

And then Pokey Men were in the Montclair time on 2/24/2011. Good stuff!

1/28/2011 Nearly everything went as
planned on this first event of the year, and first time at St. James. There was
plenty of music, Battle
of the Band winners and runners-up, some spirited moshing.
We’re promised some of the doors won’t be locked next time. And we will be back! We split the Snack Bar
income with St. James, and they seemed happy with that. The critique at the
following meeting was good, too. I happened to notice that the two singers from
Stolen Jars performed in Passing Notes the next night at the Concert for Haiti.

12/31/2010 The old year was ended
at Fletcher Hall of the UUC with a good variety of music, recruited by Josh and
Harris.Anna Berlin’s
Mocha Coffee, Shirley Temples, Julia as MC, Emily on the sound board. We
wish great 2011 to everyone. I hope for more new ideas and enthusiasm for the
Montclair Student Café Project in 2011.

11/22/2010 Serendipity Café at the First United Methodist
Church. This one was solid. Hip-Hop with harmony! Anna Berlin, Lotsa acoustic guitar players of many different styles. No
Actual contests, and slightly OK for a November event. Had a talk with Vidal of
the Parish Council and we are welcome there.

10/29/2010 Scarendipity 2010 featured 10 Sleep, Things Keep
Happening, Werebears, Mannyfesto, a bit of that gameboy
stuff at open mic, Josh on guitar, etc. 67 paid customers, and more than a
dozen staff members. Pumpkin pie eating contest. Nick
Levine, the winner. Should have had prizes for not being sick
afterwards.

9/18/2010 The Alumni Reunion worked out pretty well. We had
some good music, some olde buddies, and some swirley cake. Not to mention ukuleles. Next year I want
someone to be alumni invitor.

8/30/2010 The 8/6 event at the
Library was smooth and cool, despite the many changes in performers, & the
competition with the Acres reunion performance. We got out on time, which helps
our chances for doing Serendipity at the Library in the future. On 8/28 we had
some difficulties at the NishuanePark “CampSerendipity”.
Now, the s’mores were fine, and no one actually got
hurt, but the electric power was awful, the street light was not turned on, and
we had a problem with Lima being too loud. But, it didn’t cost that much and
Father Earth was great listening.

7/5/2010 The independence day was a
great success. Elvis lead our group, which included Patrick from Sponge Bob
(Jeremy), Winnie the Pooh (Julia Z and Josh), Cookie Monster (Nick Levine) and
Cat in the Hat (Aidan Feliciano). The angels, Emily and Lidia (and sometimes
Julia) and the Banner makers and bearers, Anna, Johnny Q, Ethan, Thatcher, and
everyone I left out really made it a hot one. By which I mean like 101 F. In the shade. You could of fried an
egg on this parade! Consider revising.

6/19/2010. There is nothing like Festival Underground, when
it doesn’t rain! There was a decent crowd of our usual audience, including some
open mic performers, regulars, and so on. The weather was perfect. Ken was as
tough as a circus roustabout, and the staff were very helpful, happy, relaxed.
We put on 7 or eight bands, Had a jam at the end with
Adam, Jeff, and Vin doing some tunes.Cell phone pix below. The bands were: The Porchistas, Hazmats, Tasm, A vs B,March to the Sea, Ten Sleep, Los Huevos, Slim Deer, Tense Deer. An theAlumi
Trio.

6/5/2010 The Relay for Life was definitely an all-nighter.
We set a record for playing outdoor live music in Montclair, playing until 11:15PM without
getting complained about! The relay was a great success in terms of money
raised. Ken donated the generator rental fee. We could have used some more help
at the end. And some better weather.

4/30/2010 The best ever Hip-Hop
Serendipity, the “Rap-Fest”. Good sized audience, interesting variety, a whole new bunch of people.

2/27/2010 The Valentine’s day “Carendipity”.Decent size crowd, good bands, excellent open mic.Almost made some money. Love that dry ice seltzer!

1/31/2010We don’t know why the Pyramids disappeared, but the rest of us
had fun. A tad too many acoustic guitar/singer types for my
liking. Good thing Thatcher and his gang brought their electrics.

1/2/2010 I have to say First Night was one of the great
ones. Large attendance, great job by the staff keeping things
going, participation of newbies and alumni, having
the Mayor in the audience, great help by parents. What a kick! Happy New
Year!

11/28/09 We’re back to small. Perhaps the number of days out of school effect? But good to
see Evan & Daryl do their acoustic sets. Moravec
was fine. How about those classical guitarists at open mic?

10/31/09 Scarendipity had it’s points. Attendance
over 70, for one. Face painting contest, good open mic, great bands. Los Huevos!

9/28/09 We’re up to 50, audience
wise. Roger Rockmore, The blue kids, Avaiary, Moravec, etc all well
done. Thanks to those who stuck out the rain and made the ending a happy one.

8/29/09 Small staff, small audience, last
night. The rain was real. The jams & open mic were good fun. Larry
& Nick were awesome, Aiden, Anna, the staff: Nick, Anna, Kat.

Thanks.

7/22/2009 As of today’s meeting the
entertainment committee only had one band. So we decided not to put on an event
that doesn’t meet our standards. We’re going to ask for the amphitheater.

7/18/2009 The parade was great,
Elvis was in good form, as were big bird, Elmo, The cookie monster and AbbieKadabra. We will not be in
the Amphi, due to other concerts and work, but
hopefully the Union Congregational space will be available.

6/20/2009 We had the Park House as
a rain location, and lucky we did. It rained. I think a lot of people missed
this great event, because they thought it was too rainy. Congratulations to
Larry Pope, this year’s Staff Scholarship Award winner and many thanks to the
runners up, Ethan Cantor and Ross Hamilton for their years of dedicated
service.

5/30/09 Same size, same dedication.
Animal Scandal turned out to be quite good. Too bad about the Awesome!! And the
rain, we’ll try again in September. No Library this summer, I’m told, due to
staffing problems. So we’ll try for the Amphitheater.

3/21/09 Another small but dedicated
audience. We must advertise. Excitement for the Awesome!! Is
building. The whole town is gonna be there.

2/21/09Use of the Union Congregational Church, VincentBuilding,
basement went well. The Arrow Committee did superbly & Emma’s choice of The
Marionette Roulette was the most interesting. Our own “March to the Sea” was
great. As was the film

01/31/09 Great stuff! A live painting
thing. Daryl! Good music. Good turnout for cleanup. Even made some money
this time!

12/31/08 I missed Larry. A lot of things happened,
the music was great, though.

11/22/08 Small but excellent, and I think there are other
things to add. Evan!

10/18/08 The Lutheran Church seems to bring us good luck.
The Passing Notes were great, I hope they come back. So were
Crucial Party. Cranes Are Flying are getting better
and better. Pumpkin pie, though, even as a watcher I was near to being “sick”.

9/26/08 It was cool to put all the
tables on the stage. The lighting came out right and so did the sound. The
bands were good.Not bad for a rainy
day.

8/23/08 Well, we just love the
library. And Byron came through with some interesting entertainment. Sakura
Madams, you know.

8/7/2008 Although Manuel put in a lot of work setting up the
Hip-Hop show, it just didn’t come together. Too many people
out of town, not enough time. We’ll try this again in the fall.

07/04/2008 Marched in the Independence Day Parade. Early on
we were joined by Sara Bynum-Copeland, who is Terry’s mother. She stayed with
us for the whole parade, and helped carry the banner. She told us stories from
the founding of Terry’s Serendipity Café. And it didn’t rain much.!

5/31/2008The watermelon eating was astounding. We must get the names of
those contestants. Lima Research Society just goes to show what Science can do.
And Evan! Thanks for the music.

4/29/2008 The 4/26 Café was interesting,
to say the least. Confusing, I might say. More after the critique

4/7/2008The 3/29
event was an “Unexpected Gem”.A slow
start, but it built to a great finish.

3/11/2008 The masks and bellies
were heavily decorated on Leap Day. Well attended, The Library is the best!
Thanks, everyone!

2/21/2008 Incredible technological
breakthrough! Paper masks are being built for the 2/29 Leap Day extravaganza.
What an eclipse last night!

1/25/2008- What?? Still no guesses about Webley? We have a new drum hardware bag. Knive design has produced our new, nearly sold out batch of
T-Shirts.

12/10/07- You can email us at SerendipityCafe@hotmail.com. If
anyone knows who Webley Webster is, they might win a brass
figligee with bronze oak leaf palm. No relation to
Louise.

11/9/07 – Go to the Myspace
(Serendipitycafe1) and look at the videos of the Jell-o contest from
Scarendipity 2007! Well, really.

9/28/07 – Reputed to be “the greatest Serendipity ever!”, with Franciso, Point 5, Kodiak
Bear Regiment and Welcome home. We broke a table leg, but you know what they
say.

8/31/07 – Generator Powered! At least we had sound. Lights
didn’t work. But we liked Lima Research Society, Crucial Pary,
Funkus, and said goodbye to Byron Lupin
III, and hello to Byron the Traveller.I hope that confetti really goes away.

7/20/07 – Good turnout, interesting music. The library is a
great place for Serendipity. The movie was a beauty, and the Library’s
DVD/Projector/Screen was very slick indeed.

6/16/07 – The Festival Underground was great! We presented
the Serendipity Staff Scholarship to Evan AND Zack, listened to new bands,
enjoyed the sunshine, and then!!!! Got rained and thundered on just before the
Staff Band was to play. Talk about luck! Missed Lof, though.Next time.
Come to the Parade, come to the library.

2/5/07 – We now have a stage snake, thanks to the Parents
Who Rock, which we used in January, at the 1/27 café. It worked fine. Reviews
were quite positive for the January event, we had
interesting and solid music, thanks to Julia Berlin. Feb is shaping up well,
with Gray Delmar in charge of entertaiment.

1/10/2007 – We had a great time on First Night. The
recordings are in the mixing/burning stage. All the performers were
professional and great. Some of them are completely famous. The reviews looked
good in the Montclairtimes,and we made some
money, so we’re buying a snake!!! A 16 channel, 75 foot audio
cable for our new mixer.

8/22/2006 – We got rained out in July but the August
amphitheater café was lovely. The weather was fine and we even had electric
power. There’s a bit in the Montlcair times about
volunteering, for adults. September is recruitment month!

5/24/2006 – There will be no library café’s this summer due
to shortness of staff. However, we will try for July 21 and Aug 18 at the
Amphitheater.

3/25/2006 – This café was the first one recorded with our
new Yamaha AW1600 digital recording workstation. We’ll know in a few days how
good it sounds.

Paid attendance was 70, Heroes and Villians
didn’t show up, but we had Dogwater and Rocket
Surgery to take up the slack.No Problem!

2/25/2006 -A great party. Attendance was 117,
everyone approved highly. Tromboner was a big
attraction. Got a tuner and a couple small cables in the lost and

Found.

12/4/2005 – The December 3 Serendipity was small but fun. We
had a lot of competion from Showcase, Hockey and
Football. The large group of helpers at the end, putting the equipment back at
277 Grove, was a really wonderful indication that Serendipity is doing fine. Annnnnd…Check the “myspace” page at

11/2/2005 – The Scarendipty went
well. Attendance was up, the entertainment recovered well from a last minute
change of bands, and the critique meeting tonight was energetic and pointed.

9/28/2005 – The 9/23/05 Serendipity at the Amphitheater was
rained into the Auditorium. The move was quick, and over $100 was raised for
Katrina Hurrincane victims.

8/21/2005 – The Aug 12th café was very lucky. We
got the entertainment booked at the last minute, we
had a good turnout, lotta fun, and didn’t have to pay
rent for the building, thanks to Phil Jones and Tom Flowers. It will be good to
get everyone back to town & started up on the Scarenedipity
and such.

7/7/2005 -The July 19th event has been cancelled due to lack of
staff.

6/27/2005 – The Festvial was (in
my humble opinion) excellent this year. The Acid Reignwere the hit of the day, and we were lucky to have
both the founders of Festival Underground at the event. Thanks to Ken Pasture
for all the work, heavy lifting, and all day in the heat. Thanks to all the
bands, all the parents, my mom and dad, and that kid over there.

5/30/2005 – the 5/28 Café had a really surprising number of
Alumni in Attendance. And seeing Sara Bynum-Copeland, Terry’s mother, and Troy, Terry’s brother was
wonderful. Among the old timers present were: Carleton Pote,
Vin Demming, Isabel Chalek,
Bill Farrell, Leigh Jones, Seth Orlofsky (with Heroes
and Villains), Joel Kennedy and Mark Ludas in Rocket
Surgery, and John Ludas & his brother in Fire in
a Space Station, Justin Cody, Chris White (whom I missed, sorry, Chris), Rachel
Watson, Dave Chaleck, Dylan Pasture, and others, I’ve
probably forgotten. Thanks for David T. and Tim for the entertainment and waitering. Also thank Lucas who put in a hard day at work
and then another one at TSC. The music was great, we ran late. You should have
been there

5/1/2005 – the 4/30 café was small but intimate. The guitar
piñata was pink, the cake was free and the music was in great variety. You
should have been there.

3/21/2005 – The 3/19 café was fine! Special thanks to Pet
Boy Sherman for filling in for the missing members of Cripple Fight. Solid
performances by the Gray Escape (Dave), The Early, Princeton Review and Dogwater. Alex Gorlick was
awesome. I liked them all.

2/28/2005 – Collected $142 for Tsunami Relief. How many want
Saturday’s silly story on the web site? Raise your hands, one at a time,
please.

1/5/2005: The First Night at the Library café went smoothly,
and was well received. We have a project under way to record the café performances
to put on CD’s and here. New staff members come to the meeting today. Here
comes the thnickaman!

11/27/04: The Library café was fine once we got in. There
were some rough moments, waiting for the keymaster to
let us in. After that, Kelsey was great on the café part, and Evan did OK at MC
and ent. Head.
The crowd seemed to be weighted toward the younger side and somewhat smaller
than usual. But we decided to go with the Library for First Night.

8/22/04:Saturday’s
café was mellow. Was that Manny Smith I saw? Sam Paterson? Too bad we didn’t
get any pictures. Anyone who has pix of the 8/21 café, please email them to serendipitycafe@hotmail.com , but
keep the size small. Use medium quality jpegs.

6/19/04:The festival
Underground was a beautiful day, and a small group of
the inner circle of Serendipity friends showed up for a really great day of
music and sun and breezes and hackie-Frisbee.

6/9/04:The Mettenhiemer was
awesome. Thanks to Dylan, Jackie, Marty, Gail, Ken, Bruno, all the Staff
members, especially the waiters, The Montclair Women’s Club, our advertisers,
the bands, performers, lotta work, lotta good results. Evelyn!Not out of character for a millisecond. Cinema! Cinema!

4/19/04 The Hip Hop Serendipity didn’t quite work. Some of
the music was good, some of it was medium, but mainly, hardly anyone showed up.

3/23/04
The March Serendipity started off a bit rainy, but that didn’t bother us much.
The café went well, except for our poet who didn’t show until the next day. Maybe next time?

3/4/04
Since the Mettenheimer Ball is shaping up to be the
most expensive endeavor that Terry's Serendipity Cafe has ever run ( and the most serious undertaking) , we're running a
benefit to help with the catering and rent. It will be held on Saturday March
13th, 6PM to 9 PM at @ la Palais Du Goldman 72 Plymouth St. Montclair, The
suggested donation is $2.00, more if you can afford it. The entertainment will
be provided by Bulletisme, Forever Stark, and
Remember Van Gogh. Also, our March event, on the 20th, will try to raise money
for the Mettenheimer as well. You can direct
inquiries to serendipitycafe@hotmail.com.

2/23/04 The “Candle Light” Café included many bands never
before seen at Serendipity. We were lucky to get Lucas’s camera working long
enough to get the pictures off it. Holy Moley!

2/3/04
The “Battle
of the Bands Redux” Produced by Evan Hall,was a great success. It was
too bad Forever Stark and Inevitable didn’t perform, but we had enough music
anyhow. Send your comments to serendipitycafe@hotmail.com

1/14/04:
January’s event will be a re-run of the SVPA’sBattle of the Bands, which was won by
Nemesis Enforcer. The complete list is: Inevetable,
Forever Stark, Banana Slugs, Nemesis Enforcer, Dogwater
Calamity, One Slim Chance and Pet Boy Sherman. It will be more show-like and
less café –like, because that’s what the bands want. We need more adult
advisors for this event.

11/22/03: We all really like the Lutheran Church spot. We had an excellent
café, with interesting music. The layout is comfy and we worked all the usual
stuff in. The arrow committee truly excelled in navigational
aids. David, you were marvelous More after the
meeting.

I don’t know what caused it but we had the biggest, warmest crowd ever at
the 10/25/03 Scarendipity. Over 175 people paid to come in and a bunch
more were staff, performers, freeloaders of other kinds and adult supervisors.
Many thanks to Gail Rainken, Cat Kanner,
Pat Shrout, Jane Hanson, Ted Stilles, Ken Pasture,
Peter Guiffra (Elvis), Bruno Suria and all the staff
members who worked hard and long. There or other people who helped and we will
have a lot to talk about when we meet on Wednesday.

The re-moved café worked out! We hadmore than a hundred in the audience
and a great open mic hour. Can’t beat that Fire Dean.
By the way, I fixed that buzzy stage monitor.

Nothing in recorded history can match the sophistication of the Sophisticate
Serendipity! The ambience, music, poetry, food, drink and apparel were all in
character from beginning to end. Historic performances by
all, from Sousaphones to Jazz Quintet.And the first
ever wedding at Serendipity.Many thanks to the Mettenheimer foundation for making it all possible.

The April 12 Café was very interesting. Waking
James, Miasmiscs, Tim and Tonic and Gruve were all first time bands (I think) and all great.
Open mic went fine. The staff was top notch, including the new sound crew.
Thanks to all who helped clean up & move out.

Congratulations to Pet Boy Sherman
on winning the SVPA battle of the bands. And great work by Redwood School
District as last year’s Champions. The 1/18/03 café was a success by initial
reports. The staff seem to think that the 1/18 café was the best of the year
(so far). We need volunteers for the Feb and March committees.

The 2002 Fall
season was unusually well received. In September we overcame a power failure
and enjoyed a fine outdoor café in front of the Innes building. In October, the
Spooky Serendipity was quite the event, with 2 Elvises
and lots of costumes. (see photo gallery). In
November, the Café at the church last Saturday was excellent, with great music.
December included First Night Montclair, which wasn’t perfect, but once again
we overcame adversity.

Terry’s Serendipity Café is a project begun by
Montclair High School students in the spring of 1995. It provides a place for
our town’s young people to listen to performances by a wide variety of artists,
poets and musicians here in town. Terry’s Serendipity Café is run by the
students themselves, with adult volunteer advice and supervision. The café
presents all types of performances and music from classical to rock, from jazz
to hip hop. We have “open mic” time set aside at each café for people to come
up on stage and perform. It is a great place for new artists to present their
material to a live audience.

The café is held at a variety of places depending on
availability, season and ideas. Wherever it is held, the café is drug, smoke
and alcohol free, and the emphasis is on respect for the performers and
audience alike. The café project is educational for the staff and entertaining
for the customers.

After three months of preparation, the first café was
held at the Edgemont Park Shelter House in Montclair in early June of 1995. For
about two years, the café was held about twice a month in the Park House. Other
locations include the Glenfield Park house, the MHS
amphitheater, the Hillside School cafeteria, 12 Miles West Theater, and the
First United Methodist Church. Entertainment has included famous jazz
performers, student and adult age bands, poets and comedians, actors and
rappers. In 2001 we screened some avant-garde videos.

In early 1998 a crisis occurred as the founding
members wanted to retire, but found the organization difficult to part with.
After a period of about eight months of no activity, the project found itself
in the hands of a new staff who wanted to re-start the project. In 1999 cafes
were held about every 6 weeks. In 2000 we began to step up the pace and in 2001
and 2002 we held an event every month.

Terry's Serendipity Café always NEEDS NEW
STAFF! We are always looking for new staff members. It's
fun and you can get a keen T-shirt. If you want to get involved in the
Serendipity Café, then come to meetings. . We need students and adults
interested in theater, art, finance, management, music, advertising, world wide web technology, and food. They are every Wednesday from 6:00 – 7:00 pm at the Edgemont Park
House on Valley Rd, North
of the Pond.

We are also always looking for new performers. If you would like to perform at Serendipity
either talk to one of the staff,
email us, or call Ed Carine at
(973) 783-3183.